Taking Humdrum Astronaut Food, and Kicking It Up a Notch

By KIM SEVERSON

Published: August 29, 2006

The first rule about cooking for astronauts is don't make anything that crumbles. No one wants to chase a crumb around a space station.

Although most people rarely consider what the three people who live on the International Space Station are going to have for dinner, food scientists in Houston spend their days worrying like fussy mothers over what their astronauts eat.

More than 400 people have shot into space since 1961, and none have eaten better than the astronauts in the space station, said Vickie Kloeris, who has been with the space food program for 21 years.

''We have so much more variety,'' Ms. Kloeris said. ''You're going to have a fair number of meat-and-potatoes guys, but we've been incorporating more ethnic food.''

A French chef has also gotten into the space food game, working on some canned meals expected to debut in the fall. It is the first time that the European Union is contributing to a space menu jointly supplied by Russia and the United States.

The new French food will not be on the space shuttle Atlantis, which was to have been launched this week but has been delayed because of bad weather.

The shuttle, which is largely filled with construction material to expand the space station, will carry a limited cache of food for the station astronauts, including kiwis, oranges and nectarines. And the shuttle astronauts might donate some of their flour tortillas, if they have any left over. Tortillas are useful in space because they can turn anything into a sandwich and do not produce crumbs or mold as easily as bread.

When a crew has been stuck in space for six months, a fresh tortilla or the crunch of an apple can make all the difference in their mood.

''If something is just a little bit irritating, it can take on huge proportions if it's irritating three times a day seven days a week for months,'' said William S. McArthur Jr., an astronaut and a retired Army colonel who came back in April from serving as commander of the space station. He spent 190 days in orbit.

One trick the NASA food scientists use to keep the astronauts happy is to add lots of tang and spice to the menu. (And that's not Tang, the powdered-drink mix. Ms. Kloeris is determined to quash the rumor that NASA invented Tang, or freeze-drying, for that matter.)

In space, the sense of smell is dulled. Weightlessness makes fluid shift from the lower torso to the upper, clogging nasal passages. And an atmosphere without gravity, fed only by filtered, recirculated air, does funny things to odors. Eating out of the cans and plastic pouches stocked in the space station pantry also limits the olfactory pleasures that hot food brings.

After a few months of that, a bottle of Tabasco or a raw garlic clove can be heaven. ''We crave anything with a nice, sharp flavor,'' Colonel McArthur said.

He speaks with the precision of a restaurant critic when he describes his favorite space food dish, dehydrated shrimp cocktail. Medium shrimp coated in sauce are plumped with a spurt of water injected into a plastic pouch, which is massaged to mix the ingredients. Colonel McArthur does not like to mix it too thoroughly, though.

''It's quite a treat if you encounter a little pocket of horseradish,'' he said.

Salt and pepper can help, too, but they are in liquid form. Grains of salt and pepper in microgravity could clog equipment or become lodged in an astronaut's nose or eyes.

Even a fresh tomato, which the Russians often take when it is their turn to resupply the space station, can cause problems. Instead of biting right into one, the crew has to slice it carefully.

''If a little tomato juice squirts out when you bite it, we have to go track it down,'' Colonel McArthur said.

Unlike many Americans, the astronauts eat almost all their meals together at a common table. Of course, they are not sitting. They are floating. They use a toehold to stay in place, and attach bottles of ketchup and utensils to the table with straps and Velcro. They use forks and spoons, but the food has to be moist enough to stick together.

The astronauts use two heating systems for food, one Russian, one American. The American system is largely based on hot water and plastic pouches. The Russian one uses cans of food that are heated in compartments inset into the galley.

But everyone shares food. Colonel McArthur developed a taste for the Russians' lamb stew, and he likes the pulpy juice they supply. The Americans realized that the Russians want soup every day, so they included more soup in the communal pantry.

The astronauts are careful not to waste anything, even if they do not like a dish. ''We try to never throw food away because you never know what the future might hold,'' Colonel McArthur said.

Sometimes, when the shuttles resupply the station, the astronauts get special treats. On the shuttle Discovery mission last month, it was food developed by Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans chef and Food Network star. The NASA public affairs office contacted the chef 18 months ago to ask him to make a morale-boosting call to the astronauts. Mr. Lagasse's team, led by his executive producer, Karen Katz, countered with the idea of creating a spicy culinary diversion.

Mr. Lagasse developed five recipes that the NASA kitchen then turned into freeze-dried packets, each about the size of a deck of cards.